The student's IEP team determines eligibility for special education programs and services. A student will be eligible if he/she has a disability, the disability adversely affects the student's educational performance and the disability requires special education and related services to address the educational needs.

The basic way in which a disability is determined is by identifying that a significant discrepancy exists between what is expected and actual performance, and the student has not responded sufficiently to intervention(s), or the student's progress is dependent on substantial assistance.

Disability Categories:

AUTISM (AUT)

The child has a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has a behavior/emotional disorder.

BEHAVIOR/EMOTIONAL DISORDER (BD)

The child exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over an extended period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects educational performance even after supportive assistance has been provided. The student must demonstrate 1) an inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, health, cultural or linguistic factors 2) an inability to develop or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and adults, 3) in appropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances, 4) a general pervasive mood of anxiety, unhappiness or depression, or 5) a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

DEAF-BLIND (D-B)

The child has concomitant hearing and visual impairment, the combination of which causes such severed communication and other developmental, educational, vocational and rehabilitation problems that he/she cannot properly be accommodated in special education or vocational rehabilitation programs either for the haring impaired or the visually impaired. The eligibility criteria include a visual impairment which is defined as corrected visual acuity poorer than 20/70 in the better eye, restricted visual field of 20 degrees or less in the better eye, cortical blindness and/or no apparent response to visual stimulation and a hearing impairment which is defined as a sensorineural hearing loss or a permanent conductive hearing loss with aided sensitivity of 30 DB or worse bilateral. If this disability is listed, hearing impairment or visual impairment cannot also be listed.

DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY (DD)

Children ages three through five who have one or more disabilities who are experiencing delay in at least one of the following domains, physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social and emotional development, or adaptive development.

HEALTH IMPAIRMENT (OHI)

The child exhibits a health impairment, either temporary or permanent, which interferes with his/her leanring and/or requires adaptation of the physical plant.

HEARING IMPAIRMENT (HI)

The child's residual hearing is not sufficient to enable the student to understand the spoken word and to develop language, thus causing extreme deprivation in learning and communication; or he/she exhibits a hearing loss which prevents full awareness of environmental sounds and spoken language, limiting normal language acquisition and learning achievement. If this disability is listed, deaf-blind cannot be listed.

MENTAL IMPAIRMENT (MI)

The child's intellectual development, mental capacity, adaptive behavior, and academic achievement are markedly delayed. Such mental impairment may be mild, moderate, severe or profound. If this disability is listed, specific learning disability cannot be entered for the student.

PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT (PI)

The child exhibits a physical impairment other than hearing or vision, either temporary or permanent, which interferes with his/her learning and/or which requires adaptation of the physical plant.

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY (SLD)

The child exhibits a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning problems, which are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities, of mental impairment, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage. If this disability is listed, mental impairment cannot be listed for the student.

SPEECH AND/OR LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT (S/L)

The child exhibits deviations of speech and/or language processes which are outside the range of acceptable variation within a given environment and which prevent full social or educational development.

TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI)

The child has an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force occurring after the perinatal period that adversely affects a child's educational performance. It is not medically degenerative or congenital. The student must demonstrate impairment in one or more of the following areas cognitive functioning, communication, social/emotional, sensory/perceptual, motor, adaptive behavior.

VISUAL IMPAIRMENT (VI)

The child's visual impairment is such that the student cannot develop his/her educational potential without special services and materials. If this disability is listed, deaf-blind cannot also be listed.